Divine Inheritance: Chaos

Unlike Tess and Merrick, Roxanne was unable to use her powers to see through the smoke because she had no ability to sense the world around her. She did have some experience using her hearing and other senses to at least get her bearings but it was still better to get rid of it quickly. It gave them an advantage she couldn't allow. She smirked, yanking the blade of her scythe out of the ground from where it dug itself after missing Tess. "Well this simply won't do. How am I supposed to see my friends tear you both to pieces?" she cackled, stepping backwards the way she came and then jumping back across the river. The smoke had affected this area too. But she was counting on that. Lifting her scythe high into the air, she quickly removed her sash (the one seen in her image) in the water of the river and tied it to the other end of her scythe. She then raised the scythe into the air above her head and began to spin it between her hands the long way. The faster she spun it, the more wind she kicked up. In seconds, she was stirring enough disturbance to start blowing the smoke away. This attack served as offensive as well. Anyone who tried to get close to her would be faced with death as the massive blade was spinning around so fast they would likely lose their head. Finally she stopped spinning the scythe when the area was cleared.

More undead swarmed the area as she removed more and more objects from her person, tokens from recent kills. "If you're going to make this more difficult for me then I have no choice but to provide consequences!" she said with an evil smirk. She turned to her most recent creations "Return to their base camp and kill them all!" she commanded them before launching herself at Merrick, who was overrun by the undead major and others.

 

Roxanne hit into Merrick hard. The force knocked him off his feet and the two began to fall. Merrick disappeared into the shadows once again leaving Roxanne to land ungracefully on the ground and pick herself up. “Bitch” Merrick said once he reappeared. He was standing back to back with Tess who had gone to work on the surrounding undead. He removed his hand from his shoulder and it came away wet with blood. “I’ll admit” Merrick said still looking at his hand, “You’ve gotten better”. There was a blue flash of light and the tear in Merrick’s armour repaired itself. “Huh, armours repaired itself, but it doesn’t heal the wound.” Merrick tested the shoulder carefully, “Helps ease the pain though”.

Tess reached into her pouch and pulled out a vial of a green liquid. “Take it” She said putting it into Merrick’s hand. She also pushed a second dagger she had into the back of his belt. “These undead bastards only stay down once you’ve removed all their limbs” She informed Merrick as she hacked an arm from one of the undead freaks as it reached for her. “I want her gone Merrick. Her presence sickens me.”

Merrick downed the vial, and shook his head at the taste. “Women and their poisons” He said. Neither he nor Tess were sure that Roxanne’s scythe was coated in poison, but the two knew well enough that it was better to be safe than sorry. “Shut it and get to work” Tess responded. “I’ll try keeping these bastards away from the camp; I want you to gut that bitch”. Tess continued cutting away at the undead. She was making steady progress immobilising the undead but the sheer number of them, if she wasn’t careful could prove overwhelming.

“Well, if that’s what you want”. Merrick said smiling, he pulled the dagger that Tess and put in his belt out and began running at Roxanne. Cutting and slicing at any undead he could reach when he was a few feet away from Roxanne he dropped into the shadows. He reappeared behind her moments later and before fully forming from the shadow he reached the dagger around and stabbed towards her abdomen.

 

Roxanne allowed the dagger to enter abdomen without retaliation. But as he did it she suddenly reached her hand down and grabbed the handle, and Merricks hand along with it. With that, she allowed herself to roll forward. As much as she did her best to hold the dagger still, it still sliced through her flesh a few inches with the movement. She felt the blade slide all that way but it didn't hurt. Still, she knew that wound would have to be favored if she didn't want to bleed out. The movement, however, twisted Merrick's hand at an awkward angle forcing him to release it. Once Merrick was on the ground she quickly rounded off to straddle him, both knees on both of his wrists as she tossed his dagger away. It impaled a nearby tree. In seconds, Roxanne had already risen her scythe to both hands. It's massive blade rested against his throat.

The blood from her wound flowed down her body, feeling warm and sticky. She knew she was losing a lot of blood. She screamed victoriously as she lifted the scythe above her head and jammed the blade down with all her strength to decapitate Merrick.

 

"Yes." Claire answered Raven.

Given that Gerik never talked to Claire about the comments others had made about her village, this could quickly veer into a conversation that Gerik didn't want Claire to be around for. "Yep. That was where her village was located. I must say though, I don't think right now would be a good time to talk about it. If you would like I could give you all the details some other time." In this situation it wasn't just wanting to prevent Claire from remembering that day. Gerik wasn't aware if Claire knew the dislike the people of Aezureth had for Titan worshipers. He also wasn't sure how the rest of the group would act knowing Claire was one.

 

“Gah fuck!” Merrick cursed as he turned to shadow; he reappeared behind Roxanne and put as much force as he could into kicking her in the head. Merrick dropped to his knees. Using his shadow manipulation so much was taking its toll on him. He looked at his hand and cursed again. Taking a deep breath he jerked his hand and gritted his teeth as the pain of popping the joint back into place hit him. He looked to where Roxanne’s scythe had landed and saw the small fissure it had created where it had hit the ground. “You’re a mess” Merrick said to Roxanne, he meant this both figuratively and literally. “Did the leader send you or are you here to settle some old scores?” Merrick said rising to his feet. He looked for his dagger but couldn’t find it.

“Merrick!” Tess shouted out as Roxanne had pinned him to the ground. The distraction was ill timed and one of the undead wrapped themselves around her. It proceeded to bite at her, fortunately her armour protected her from any real harm. Try as she might Tess wasn’t able to break the undead’s grip so she threw herself backwards. It had the desired effect and she was free of the undead’s grasp. She stood up to try to move to Merrick’s aid but quickly saw she was surrounded again. Fighting for all she was worth Tess started to panic that she wouldn’t be able to save her brother.

 

Merrick's words didn't bother Roxanne. She knew the fight was quickly turning in her favor. So much for Pluto's favorites. She was going to kill them both without even having to regenerate. Her head bounced hard off of the ground from Merrick's kick. For a moment, her vision blurred. She still felt no pain, but her vision was hazy from the injury to her head and the loss of blood from her abdomen. Merrick's words only made her laugh. Her back remained turned to the assassin brother as she, a little bit shakily, got to her feet. Using the handle of her scythe to steady herself. She turned to face Merrick, her vision clearing and her resolve steadied. Her laughter continued, her pointed teeth quite prominent. "A mess am I? Yet still sent alone to rid our master of you and your sister. tsk tsk" She reached to the tree next to her and pulled out Merrick's dagger. "What a disappointment you two are. You should have left this country while you had the chance. Once I'm done with you, you can rest assured your last act will be under my control to jam this knife through her eyes."

As she spoke she brought the dagger back and threw it with all her might toward Merrick. At first it looked like she missed as it whistled past his head at the speed of a bullet. But soon it was obvious the dagger was going straight for it's intended target: directly in route to Tess's chest. In the same movement she swung her scythe at Merrick again, working through her wounds as though they weren't even there.

More undead managed to wander past Tess and toward the camp.

 

It happened in an instant. Tess heard rather than saw the dagger flying towards her. Had it not been for the blind panic setting in she wouldn’t have been able to react and, even now it didn’t do her much good. The dagger hit her in the shoulder, the force of the blow caused her entire body to twist and Tess fell heavily to the ground. Was this it? Was this how Tess would die? “No! Not at the hands of this bitch!” Tess screamed to herself as she tried to get up. The dagger must have hit some nerves Tess realised as she fell back to the ground. Her entire left arm was nothing but dead weight. Tess had to move fast, the undead were still moving in to surround her. Focusing all her might she allowed her fear to fill her, empower her. She shakily brought herself up; collected her dagger from the ground and with speed and strength previously unknown to her set off to kill those bastard undead that hadn’t already left for the camp.

Merrick had no idea what the daggers true target was until he heard Tess cry out in pain. Merrick was overwhelmed with a blind rage; it filled him in its entirely and he didn’t resist it. He gave into that raw, bitter rage. Merrick dived at Roxanne, even the scythe biting into his flesh didn’t deter him. He tackled her to the ground and went to work. He punched, once, twice, again and again screaming at the top of his lungs. “Die! Die! Fucking die!” He shouted letting the anger consume him. Merrick’s knuckles turned bloody through his armour and when the pain of it finally became too much he once again screamed into the heavens.

Merrick wasn’t done. He moved up Roxanne so he was now sitting on her chest. He looked down at her bloody face, and the bitch was still smiling! Merrick grabbed her head in both his hands and slammed in into the ground, and still she smiled. “I’ll wipe that fucking smile of your face!” he seethed; such anger, an anger that he’d never felt before was coursing through him. Merrick began digging his thumbs into her eyes.

 

Merrick's temper was the desired affect of Roxanne's taunts. She was initially surprised by the sheer ferocity of his rage, allowing her scythe to pierce his flesh just to get at her. But that surprise quickly melted into amusement. Of the two siblings, he was by far easier to manipulate. Fear and pain were a powerful, yet subtle tool in combat. And Roxanne was able to use them quite easily with Merrick. Normally, what she planned to do next wouldn't have as much of an affect. Because pain is more difficult to impose on a more focused mind. However an angry one, suck as Merrik's, would be much easier. She spoke to Merrick even as she felt his thumbs bury deep into her eye sockets and her vision was lost, drowned out by her own blood and then destroyed by the damage of her eyes. She still lay there, speaking like it was nothing "You know... this would be really scary..." she spoke as she suddenly started doubling the sensation of Merrick's own wounds to his wrist, arm, and where the scythe was still digging into his flesh "...If I could feel pain like you. Would you like me to show you?"
She reached up her hands to grab Merrick's forearms as she then did something neither sibling had seen her do before. She imposed the pain she was supposed to be feeling onto Merrick as well. From her eyes and stab wound. She knew this move would only deter him for a moment so she acted quickly to use the distraction to regenerate her body burst into flames which engulfed both herself and Merrick.

 

Lucius dodged out the way as much as he could from Ilda's freezing blast. But it did little to help as his leg began being consumed by ice. Lucius swung his sword down and cut Ilda's ice slide in half, causing her to flip away and land into the snow. Lucius then focused his energy through to his leg and released it, causing the ice forming on it to shatter into pieces. He stretched it out and slammed it into the ground, causing a crack to appear again and for sprays of dirt to come flying up. He advanced on Ilda as she stood up from her fall.

"You have fought tremendously, Ironside." Lucius swung his sword down hard and caught Ilda's block. They glared each other down as they both struggled against one another. Ilda swung both their swords to the side and sliced at Lucius, catching his armor. The force knocked him back a few . He cried out in rage and swung his fist, catching Ilda on the head.

 

Tess had just finished dealing with the last of the undead which hadn’t made their way to the camp. She turned around in time to see Merrick gouging out Roxanne’s eyes. Her satisfaction at this sight was short lived when she heard a noise unlike any she’d heard before. There was shouting of such pain and agony that it sent a chill down her spine. It was made worse that the shout was coming from Merrick. Moments after he began, himself and Roxanne were engulfed in a roaring flame. Tess’s body sprang into action and in a heartbeat she’d covered the distance between herself and Merrick; she didn’t stop, instead she tackled him. The two fell into the river and there was a loud hiss as the water quenched the flames that had engulfed Merrick.

Tess stood up from the fall and was having trouble pulling Merrick back to dry land. She cursed as her left arm hung uselessly by her side, but she finally got him out of the river. Tess looked to where Roxanne had been but only saw a pile of ash. She returned her attention back to Merrick and tried to remove his armour to check his injuries. “Oh by the Gods!” she said in frustration as she couldn’t release his armour. “Ego præcipio tibi, ut relinquam” she said putting two fingers to Merrick’s armour. There was a blue flash of light and when it abated Merrick’s armour had disappeared. “Merrick! Merrick, can you hear me, wake up!” Tess pleaded as she searched for a pulse. She found none.

Tess reached for her pouch which proved difficult because of its positioning on her left side. She cursed to herself and again searched for a pulse or some sign of life. “Merrick! Merrick please!”

Tess felt a strange energy and saw a green light emitting from under her armour where her wounded shoulder was. Tess could feel the nerves and muscle stitching themselves back together. Once the sensation was gone and Tess could freely move her arm. She’d healed herself. The surprise was evident in her face. Suddenly a thought struck her. She placed her hands on Merrick’s chest and tried to summon the same energy that had just healed her. She tried for what felt like a life time.

Merrick woke with a start, gasping for air. His body was riddled with pain and it hurt to move. “Merrick! You’re alive!” Tess shouted the joy clear in her voice. “Rox..anne..” Merrick said nearly incomprehensible. Tess nodded and with her arm newly healed picked up her dagger and drew an extra throwing knife. She stood protectively over Merrick and realised she’d lost track of Roxanne. Tess reached out with her powers to sense where she was.

 

The place where Merrick and Roxanne had burned was completely empty. Nothing remained, not even a pile of ash. It took several seconds before there was any sign of Roxanne. When she revealed herself, it was to snap right back into the attack. Behind where Tess stood on the bank of the river, Roxanne's scythe blade suddenly splashed from the surface followed by the handle. Roxanne used it to hook Tess and yank her back into the water, mostly using the corner where the blade met the handle to avoid straight up slashing the twin sister in half. But the blade end would, unavoidably, still come in contact with her.
She moved quickly, not allowing Tess the time to retaliate. She dug her knee into Tess's back, pinning her to the floor of the river and grabbed at her healed arm, pulling it back "Did I say you could heal this?" She more muttered than spoke, knowing that Tess's head was under water. Her words were more to herself than to her enemy. She pulled up on Tess's arm backwards, intent on re-breaking it but she did so slowly wanting to feel the exact second the arm came out of it's socket.
Even if he survived Roxanne knew her pain spell would remain in effect on Merrick until she released it. There was also the fact that she knew he would be badly wounded from the flame and otherwise. If he wasn't dead already, she at least knew he would be soon enough. And he wouldn't cause her much trouble in the mean time.


The undead that managed to make it into the camp advanced on Raven, Gerik, and Claire. Aside from the one that was missing an arm, they could have looked like living people. And they attacked with weapons. Most of them with swords.

 

Tess was surprised by Roxanne’s attack, she didn’t even have the time react before she was under the water and Roxanne had her arm. Her skills had greatly improved since their last encounter. With her free arm Tess drove her dagger into Roxanne’s leg. She stabbed several times twisting the blade every time it sliced its way into her. Tess was dismayed that this had seemingly no effect on Roxanne.

She was vaguely aware of blood that was flowing with the current. It brought a pleasant thought seeing the blackish red liquid. “At least I’ve hurt the bitch” she thought to herself. Tess began seeing whites and the edge of her vision. “We should have left” she thought again.

 

"I've been managing well enough so far." Gerik replied to Raven, still talking in his language.

"What are you two saying?" Claire asked, feeling a bit of frustration over Gerik and Raven talking in secret. Before Gerik had the chance to reply Roxanne's undead had gotten close. In an instant, he was up with Claire in his arms. He held her face to his chest so she couldn't see anything. The girl struggled to move her head about without any success. "What is going on Gerik?" She asked, almost angrily.

Sheets of rock shot up from the ground around the trio, walling them off from the undead. The stone forcibly pushed outwards when the undead reached it, pushing them a surprising distance away. Gerik set Claire down. "I need you to listen to what I say. Some monsters are here at the camp. You're going to stay in here while Raven and I take care of them. Now, I'm going to open up the wall for a moment to let Raven and myself out and then I'm going to shut it again. I need you to turn away while I do so. You cannot look at these monsters. Okay?"

"What's going..."

"This isn't a time for discussion. I need you to do as I say. Okay?"

Claire sighed. "I understand." She turned around so her back was to the opening Gerik would make.

The stone wall opened, Gerik and Raven stepped out, and it shut behind them again. "Come to think about it I could've just used the stone to impale them on the wall instead of simply pushing them away as I did. Oh well. No point in reflecting on it now."

 

(OOC: Caboose asked me to post for him as Oryx, so here we go)

IC: "By Thor's Hammer!" Oryx cried out as Lilith literally backhanded him out of the air like a butterfly. The impact sent him reeling as he flew to the side. He smacked the ground and cursed as his sword tumbled out of his hand. Oryx smacked hard into a tree and fell to the ground. He grumbled as he climbed to his feet.

"Lassie, you are mighty powerful for claiming to only be a child. You shall make a great wife one day!" he gazed around and saw his sword sticking out of a boulder. "I have fought many a beast. All threatened my life, none succeeded."

Oryx made for the rock and grabbed onto his sword. "And now, for the ultimate move. Sword and stone always make for a great combo!" he cried out in delight, swinging his new makeshift weapon at Lilith. He put all his strength into it, ready to step the fight up a notch.

 

Merrick was vaguely aware of a loud crashing beside him. His eyes were closed and he was trying to summon the strength to make himself stand. The pain that still racked his body seemed to be lessening, he couldn’t tell if Roxanne’s new trick was wearing off or if his body was simply losing its feeling. Suddenly his burns became more uncomfortable when he felt a burst of heat on his side. He tried to roll to so as to separate himself from whatever it was that was going on, when he heard a scream. A scream he didn’t recognise. Merrick opened his eyes and saw that not too far away from him Jaxx was pinned to the ground with Roxanne’s scythe. “Ah shit”, Merrick thought to himself “She dies, and that’s the end of us”. He managed to prop himself up on his elbows and saw Tess and Roxanne fighting. His attention was brought back to Jaxx as she struggled in vain against the scythe. He managed to stumble, or more accurately fall to Jaxx’s side. “Look’s alright kid” Merrick said to her as he reached her. Her face was contorted in pain and fear, and Merrick found himself wondering if this was the first time she’d ever been truly injured. “Bite on this” he said grabbing what looked to be a piece of bark and placing it in her mouth. “This will hurt”.

The impact from Roxanne’s attack took Tess from surprise. She hadn’t expected the strength behind it and it put her at a disadvantage. She recovered quickly and herself and Roxanne crossed blades a few times. The two separated and Tess threw two of her few remaining throwing knives at Roxanne. She could hear Jaxx struggling when a thought struck her. She used her fear empowerment and could feel the fear seeping from her.Tess smiled as she felt the new energy coming into her. “Let’s end this!” She shouted as she burst forwards at Roxanne.

 

"That's not much of a problem then." Gerik spoke casually as he stepped to the side to avoid the undead's attack. The ground rose up around the undead and clamped over it as though it were a mouth. The body was completely smashed from the force of the earth, blood leaking out of the cracks of the rock. Gerik sheathed his sword as the chunk of ground sank back downwards, as though nothing happened. The ground quickly consumed the other two nearby bodies as they had continued their advance. "You wanna go investigate what's happening? I should probably stick around here just to ensure Claire is safe." He put his hand up against the stone wall that surrounded Claire. Some of the ground wrapped around his arm and lifted his body up until he was at the top. He looked down to Claire. "Hey, sorry about that."

"What's going on Gerik?" She asked, shaking somewhat.

"Like I said earlier, some monsters. I'm sorry for worrying you like that. Please calm down. These monsters aren't anything to be afraid of. I just don't want you to see us deal with them. But you're safe, and that's what matters."

"How long do I stay here?"

"Until we're sure all the monsters are gone. Raven's gonna go look for everybody else. They'll end up dealing with the rest of the monsters."

"What about you?"

"I'm staying with you. Did you think I would leave you alone like this?"

"No."

 

Considering she had just been kicking ass, Roxanne was rather unprepared at the sudden change of pace. She put up her knives in an "X" shape in front of herself to block Tess's first attack but the other woman was suddenly much faster and stronger than before. Roxanne had not reacted fast enough and she was gashed across the face, from the right corner of her mouth through her left eye. What was more surprising was that she felt it that time. With a scream in rage and agony, Roxanne wheeled around and to the left to avoid Tess's knife from a second blow. Whatever had happened, Tess had bypassed Roxanne's pain shield. And that was dangerous. She would have to end this fight quickly to stop her rival from getting any stronger. Her facade of good humor was replaced with the hate that had been lurking under the surface this whole time as she yanked out one last knife and sacrificed finesse for power. She jabbed the blade with all her might and speed directly toward Tess's skull, determined to finish the bitch once and for all with this last strike.
But, to her surprise, she was met again with Tess's blade entering her flesh. This time, in her chest. And again she felt the blow like any normal human would as the well kept blade slid between her ribs before being yanked upward, cracking her bones and slicing through vital organs. Nearly blinded by her shock, Roxanne raised her foot and kicked Tess in the face as she jumped backward across the river to land next to Jaxx. Her blood stained the ground beneath her feet. She gasped before speaking "Looks like I am not the only one who has learned new tricks eh bitch?" she growled.
Meanwhile, Merrick had just managed to somewhat loosen the scythe from Jaxx's body. If it wasn't so convenient, she would be annoyed about that. But it was clear that in Tess's current state, it was foolish to fight her at such close range. Roxanne suddenly reached down and ripped the scythe the rest of the way out of Jaxx's shoulder, violently, the new wound it opened may as well have ripped Jaxx's arm off. But Roxanne didn't pause. She planned on killing her anyway, so any damage done in the meantime would just help her in that goal.
Roxanne ignored her newly discovered pain, jumping into the air and swinging her scythe directly downwards to slice Tess in half.
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

The village of Karsish was one of Paige's favorite places to visit on her trips to Azureth. It wasn't nearly as big as Mira or the richer cities. But it had a certain charm to it. So many different kinds of people gathered here, driven from their homes or persecuted due to the brutal nature of this country. But anyone could find a home in Karsish. There was a sad sort of beauty to it that appealed to Paige. She knew, under the reign of Atticus the Tyrant this village had low chances of survival. Especially with the growing number of military deserters from the fall of Barisor. Still, Paige couldn't help but admire the diversity.
She had stayed in the village for a few days when the rumors started. People spoke of how a woman claiming to be Lilith Newgate had arrived in Karsish. The rumors were unbelievable already without there also being mention of her being accompanied by other famous people such as the famous gladiator Voltair, and the feared mercenary known as the Iron Demon. The stories were so outlandish, Paige could hardly believe it. But the stories still interested her. So much that she decided to look for the mysterious woman and see for herself.